Wildflowers - Why plant them anyway ?

If you have ever wanted to plant wildflowers in your garden, then you might want to read this page from start to finish ! Few people have ever been introduced to thee concept of planting wildflowers in their gardens and a very small percentage of these people actually plant wildflowers in their gardens. If you belong to this small group of people who love and admire wildflowers enough to plant them in their own gardens, then welcome !

Most people who have ever heard of the possibility of planting wildflowers in their gardens may have one important question to start with, and that is ...

Why plant wildflowers ?

Well, if that's your question as well, then here's the reason - wildflowers are flowers that are native to the region you live in. What most people plant in their gardens are alien species of flowers that were imported from some other place. And what makes native flowers better than some other species ? Native species of wildflowers are very well adapted to the environment than the other flowers. They have natural resistance against the insects and diseases that are also native to the land ... and consequently, they are a lot easier to maintain than the non-native imported flowers.

But that's not all - wildflowers are also very beautiful and attract butterflies and birds to them. So, planting wildflowers may actually be a way of contributing to the local ecology and the environment.

And here's another reason - wildflowers native to an area do not require fertilizers and the use of fertilizers may not be a good thing to do.

Those are possibly the top reasons for planting wildflowers. But there's a lot more to this than may be obvious at first sight. Just picking any species of wildflowers and planting at some random place in your garden may not be the best thing to do as far as planting wildflowers are concerned. You will have to choose where you will want to plant wildflowers in your garden, and then choose a species based on the resources that are available to the plant at that location.

For instance, if you are going to be planting wildflowers in a high dry place or in a place where sunlight would not be available for most of the day, you may want to choose a species that can thrive in those conditions.

Also, wildflowers do take time to set up themselves after they have been planted. And, depending on the size of the area you plan to be planting them in, it might require lots of manual work before they will be able to thrive. But patience may well bee worth it when the wildflowers begin to bloom !

Wildflowers are tough and once they take root and establish themselves they may last for a long time. They are born survivors and given a good enough head start, they may flourish and thrive. They may flounder during the first year, but once past that period, they may thrive the next second season. And after that, they come up year after year for several years !